Dexter ended last season on one of the most suspenseful cliffhangers (apart from Rita’s death, obviously), with Debra walking in on Dexter as he kills Travis. There was a lot of speculation in the between time about what will result from such a groundbreaking development. The wait between last season’s finale and this season was painful, but we’ve finally arrived at the first episode of the season, the season where Deb is finally let in on the big secret.

In the books Deb found out about Dexter in the first book, when the whole Brian thing went down. The fact that it has taken this long for the show to have her find out is definitely something that lets us know that it will be a doozy (especially since Deb is now the Lieutenant of Homicide).

The episode entitled “Are You…?” starts off with Dexter looking stressed and like he’s on the run. His credit card has been cancelled, and he’s headed to the airport for a flight to… Well, he doesn’t really seem to care where his flight is to. It doesn’t really speak well for how that entire conversation went.

Then it flashes back to the scene that we were left with at the end of season 6, Debra staring at Dexter as he stands over the freshly murdered corpse of Travis. Dexter goes into panic mode, spinning a whole bunch of lies about how it had been a sort of self-defense and whatnot. It’s amazing how good Dexter is on his feet, he certainly does a lot better than most people would when placed under that kind of pressure. It was kind of disappointing to see Dexter formulate lies to get out of it rather than tell the truth when literally caught red-handed, but that seems to be his default setting.

With some careful manipulation from Dexter, they both agree to stage a suicide in order to save Dexter from the inevitable persecution that admitting such a crime (even with the plea of temporary insanity or self-defense).

There’s a flashback to when they were kids and Debra gets a puppy as a gift from their mother, while Dexter looks at it hungrily and Harry is totally losing his shit at the idea of having Dexter anywhere near the cute cuddly thing.

So, the church is set on fire, and the next day the police discover the crime scene and assume suicide. It all seems to be done and dusted – hooray team Morgan for covering up the crime! Oh no wait, LaGuerta has spotted a blood slide that fell into an inconveniently placed grate and she puts it into the log as evidence.

Given the fact that it fell in slow motion when Dexter knocked it off before it sent of some serious alarm bells, but LaGuerta picking it up? This cannot end well for our favourite serial killer.

Meanwhile, creepy stalker IT guy Louis is being creepy and stalkery with IT – playing around with Dexter’s computer and making Dexter go all crazy protective. And who can blame him? This guy was practically drooling at him while he tried to get Dexter to endorse his serial killer game last season.

Shortly after, Dexter realizes that he’s missing Travis’ blood slide. He doesn’t panic too hard, after all it could have been lost anywhere, but he really would be if he knew that a certain Captain had picked it up off the crime scene with a scrunchie. (A scrunchie, I assume, does not contaminate evidence and is entirely by the book)

Oh and hey, here’s creepy stalker IT guy (with a Razer headset prominently displayed, I don’t know if that makes me like them or makes me more suspicious) and guess what? He’s cancelling all of Dexter’s credit cards. Whether this is part of a bigger plan, or it’s just a nerdy way of beating someone up, I have no idea. Also his creepiness is starting to show because his gorgeous girlfriend – Batista’s little sister – is cottoning on saying “The more I get to know you the weirder and weirder you get”. Me and you both, Baby Batista, me and you both.

Back in Debra’s apartment she’s cracking open a beer and watching her statement on television (which she’s gotten far better at since her initial promotion to Lieutenant), and Anderson gives her a call to wonder where Travis’ car was at the scene of the crime. That is some serious commitment to the job, dude. Debra covers it up with a flimsy lie about how Travis probably wanted the fresh air before dying.

It seems Anderson may give them some trouble, but that’s okay because he’s just seen a Ukrainian on the side of the road with a flat tyre. Never a good idea to stop. Oh and hey it’s totally Victor from Dollhouse, and he’s rocking the accent again. (Don’t worry about getting confused, he’s also playing a character with the name Viktor in this episode) Anderson finds a body in the trunk, gets promptly shot by Victor, and has his car stolen. So I guess that’s the end of Mike Anderson in Dexter.

Before taking off Victor grabs a bracelet off the dead girl in the trunk, which will probably not bode well in the future.

Debra arrives at Dexter’s apartment and gives him the third degree, exploring all the holes in his story, and time after time Dexter supplies lies that cover his tracks, and then tries to distract her from pursuing the line of questioning. But, she is a cop after all, and she doesn’t seem to be buying what he’s selling. There’s none of that usual sibling love when she comes by his apartment in the morning, including a total lack of coffee for poor uncaffeinated Dexter.

Dexter and Debra head over to Anderson’s crime scene where the cops are pretty quickly putting together what happened. And Dexter seems to have updated his phone and gotten a fingerprint app for it that accesses the AFIS database. I wonder if that’s available in the app store.

Debra starts having some wicked flashbacks to the first season and how Brian had her bound in the same way Dexter does to his victims. Something seems to click and she chases down the file, confirming her suspicions that the MO is the same. The whole Dexter-Brian thing is bound to give Debra some issues, especially given her out of nowhere in-love realization regarding Dexter.

Debra confronts Dexter again, and the cracks are starting to show. They’re both frustrated and disappointed and trying to get different things from each other that they just aren’t going to get.